Filmed in Michigan, More Art Upstairs explores how Americans from disparate backgrounds can come together, despite deep disagreements, to have a civilized conversation … about culture.

The film follows four blue-chip artists competing in ArtPrize, a mash-up of Art Basel and American Idol where the public votes on who wins much of $500,000 – the largest prize money in the art world. For three weeks in Grand Rapids, local bistros, bars, abandoned buildings, and top museums showcase more than 1,500 artworks created by cerebral conceptualists and weekend hobbyists. The public votes dramatically differently from coastal elites, and both are baffled by the other’s choices.

With unmatched access to artists, organizers, jurors and visitors, More Art Upstairscaptures the entire wild ride of this competition. The result – a thoughtful yet exuberant experience about this curious confluence of paintings, populism and the notion that art can express something important about what it means to be human.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity with this film,” Jody says, “for a conversation about access and the role culture can play in restoring our country and bridging the deep divide between the public and the ‘elites’.”

Artist Nick Klein’s ArtPrize entry ,“Stripes for Saint Joseph,” a deconsecrated church that raises questions about what is a black church and what is a white church.New York artist Judith Braun creates her ArtPrize entry on the walls of the Grand Rapids Art Museum.More Art Upstairs documentary film crewLeah Smith of Rhode Island uses painters tape to create a wall sized mural at ArtPrize.Michigan artist Marissa Voytenko prepared her encaustic painting entry for ArtPrize.ArtPrize crowds in front of “In a Promised Land” by Shawn Michael Warren of Illinois.